Tomatoes for Hope

       




 
Every year J plants his garden. Some years it is great. Other years the critters get it or the weather gets it, but this year J is winning, and the tomatoes are coming in. A real home-grown summer tomato is something worth waiting for. Garrison Keillor calls all other tomatoes "those little hockey pucks they strip-mine down in Florida," and they are not worth the shelf space they take up. But J's tomatoes are bliss. And he's got more of them than he knows what to do with.

So he's bringing them to church. He sent out an email that he's selling them, so he set up shop right in the parish hall after church, and it was our own little farmer's market right there next to people eating fruit and hummus and chicken enchiladas left over from the parish lunch a few weeks ago (they had been in the freezer but we need room for the Independence Day Stars and Stripes Music Fest that is coming up.)

 But the coolest part -- other than the very cool part that means I can eat a really great BLT and make my favorite gazpacho -- is that the proceeds go to our Early Readers' Project. It's going to take bounty like J's tomatoes but most of all generous and outpouring hearts like his to enable us to buy books for all the first, second, and third graders at Menchaca Elementary School next May. And that is a lot of books: 12 for each first grader and 8 for every second and third grader. They get fewer because they are into chapter books, which take longer to read and are more expensive. I imagine we will need somewhere around $5000.

We just gave away 1266 books to 174 first and second graders. I'm guessing it will be closer to 2800 next year.

So here we go, a tomato at a time. Or pennies dropped into a jar.

We are in the hope business. Hope that if these children have books to read over the summer -- books that they chose and that they own -- they will not suffer 'summer slide' and will come to school in the fall still reading on grade level. That did happen in the second grade last fall after we gave books to the first graders in the spring. And hope that being strong readers, they will be filled with self-confidence and will go on to finish high school instead of dropping out, which is what happens to 60% of children who are not reading on grade level by third grade.

Yes, we are in the hope business, and it doesn't hurt a bit if those tomatoes that are fueling it taste amazing. I think they are why Mr. Hellman made his mayonnaise in the first place.

(If anyone would like to contribute, donations may be sent to St. Alban's Episcopal Church, 11819 So. IH-35, Austin, TX 78747. Or you may help by placing your Amazon orders through the reading child icon on our website www.stalbansaustin.org. We receive 6% on all orders placed through that portal. Thank you.) And it would be awesome if you'd share this with your friends. We can't ship the tomatoes, but we'd really like to share our excitement over this project.

You can find the gazpacho recipe under 'Chicken.'